Boss Eamon O’Shea insists he never stopped believing that Tipperary could return to the Championship’s summit.

The 2010 All-Ireland winners are just 70 minutes from a final clash with Kilkenny that seemed highly unlikely just months ago.

Tipp lost three of their first four league games and narrowly avoided relegation. Then they went under to Limerick in the Championship and trailed Galway by six in the second-half of a win-or-bust qualifier.

But each time they responded with big wins and are picking up real form now entering the business stage of the season.

O’Shea said: “I just absolutely believed in them, no question. There was no maybes, no caveats. I ­absolutely believed in the team and that’s why we are back.

“Yes, you are wondering as a manager what you can do to get this right. But it’s that, more than anything else, you never lose faith.”

Asked what he did to steady the ship, particularly in that game against Galway when they won late on, O’Shea pointed to instinct.

He said: “You’ve got to trust it. It’s a ­question of whether you put structure before instinct, or instinct before ­structure. Hurling is such a quick game and it is difficult to theorise about it.

“Personally, I like instinct. We encourage them to move, to solve their own puzzles. That’s what they’ve done.”

On the week when the Leaving Cert results were announced, ­university lecturer O’Shea compared today’s game to Tipp’s biggest ‘exam’ of the year.

They face the Munster champions, Cork, but the bookies are split on calling a winner.

The counties have a rivalry that goes back decades. O’Shea himself has ‘vivid’ memories of a goal he missed against the Rebels back in the 1970s.

He said: “Tipp against Cork, it’s always ­something very special.

“They haven’t played since the Munster final. Five or six weeks is a long time and that has to be managed properly, but Cork are very ­experienced at that stuff. You wouldn’t ­anticipate that being a big issue. They have found some new players this year and won the Munster ­championship. They are a formidable team.

But if it comes down to the last few minutes, O’Shea knows his players possess vital experience.

Lar Corbett has two All-Ireland medals while all three Mahers were winners in 2010.

As for goal poacher Seamus Callanan, he’s in the form of his career and the player Cork will surely fear most.

O’Shea said: “Seamus has been working towards this for the last 18 months. Consistency is what you are looking for from a really top player, consistency over a range of games.

“Then you make a judgement call over a period of time. What he has brought to his game is that ­consistency, so that on any given day you would expect him to play well. That’s good for him and good for Tipp.”